Exiting Egypt Chapter 10 P2

Exiting Egypt

Eighth Plague – Swarms of Locust

Exodus 10:1-20

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 10 P2

This idea of training up our children and they their children and so on is a key element in God’s relationship with Israel. Throughout the bible we are told that we need to learn to fear the Lord, learn His will, wisdom, righteousness, as well as His statutes, commandments, and doctrine. But we are also commanded not to learn to blaspheme, learn the way of the heathen, or to be idle.

And so, what are we teaching to our children. We are commanded to bring up our children in the instruction of the Lord.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4 NIV)

The picture that Paul reveals here is a parent who is self-controlled, gentle, and patient as they educate their children, not in the ways of man or of the world, there’s enough of that already out there to take children away from the good and right way, but to educate them in God’s word and what is truly right and true.

Further, the verb, “bring them up,” means literally to nourish or feed, and so as parents just as we nourish and feed their bodies so that they can grow physically, so are we to feed and nourish their souls and spirits so that they can grow spiritually in the things and in the ways of the Lord, for that is the only real growth that is going to matter in the end.

Now, part of this learning involves discipline. The word training is to train by discipline. We see this discipline as part of what the Bible says is our responsibility. “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (Prov. 12:34). Yet, people have wrongly used this verse to justify their excessive discipline.

Today to counter this we have a whole new generation that is sort of laissez-faire on this whole discipline thing. I think that Martin Lloyd-Jones said it best.

“The opposite of wrong discipline is not the absence of discipline, but right discipline, true discipline.”

“When you are disciplining a child, you should have first controlled yourself… What right have you to say to your child that he needs discipline when you obviously need it yourself? Self-control, the control of temper, is an essential pre-requisite in the control of others.”